Challenge Games
The information on this page is taken from the webpage www.challengegames.com/about.php. About Us Challenge Games was founded in 2006 with the mission of creating online, short-form games that are challenging, fun and easy to play whether you're a serious or casual gamer. The big idea was to create cool games that can be played in 3-10 minute time increments anytime, from anywhere. While many of today's popular online games, like World of Warcraft and Everquest, allow players to explore vast fantasy worlds, they require huge time commitments and are considered "monogamous" in nature, because they take hours to play. The games created by Challenge Games provide "quick-fix" entertainment for both the hardcore and casual gamer alike. As an added benefit, although the games are multiplayer in nature, players can participate in the action when it's convenient for them. The first title released by Challenge Games was Duels, a free online multiplayer fantasy game that combines the head-to-head play, collectibility and trading associated with collectible card games (CCGs) - like Magic: The Gathering and Yug-i-oh - and the level advancement and character development of massively multi-player games (MMORPGs) with the ease of access and community aspects of Web 2.0 applications. Duels is also available as a Facebook application. Duels and other games developed by Challenge Games are free. Players have the option to trade or sell items to other players and they can even sign up for VIP memberships for a small subscription fee. Challenge Games is the brainchild of Andrew Busey, creator of web-based chat and author of one of the first online gaming books - Secrets of the MUD Wizards. An avid gamer himself, Andrew has led, developed and contributed to numerous "Multi-User Dungeon" or "Multi-User Domain" (MUDs) games, which were the early predecessors to games like World of Warcraft and Everquest. Andrew Busey Andrew Busey is the founder and CEO of Challenge Games, a new online gaming company creating exciting and challenging short-form games that don't require huge time commitments to play and enjoy. Over the past 15 years, Andrew has pioneered some of the industry's most important web technologies - including work on Mosaic, the first web browser (now part of Microsoft Internet Explorer); creating iChat, one of the first instant messaging applications; and building WebCenter, the first major web-based customer service technology (now part of Avaya). He most recently co-founded Pluck which enables social media on major sites such as TheStreet.com, USA Today, and Reuters. But his passion has always been gaming. In 2006 Andrew decided the time was right to pursue his dream and Challenge Games was born. In the past, Andrew led, developed, and contributed to numerous "Multi-User Dungeon" or "Multi-User Domain" (MUDs) games, which were the early predecessors to games like World of Warcraft and Everquest. In 1994, he wrote Secrets of the MUD Wizards, the first major published book on the topic. Andrew holds six technology patents and has several others pending. He is a graduate in computer science and marketing from Duke University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In Duels, Andrew is known as Loki. Frank Coppersmith Frank Coppersmith is Vice President, Finance and Administration for Challenge Online Games, Inc. In this position, he serves as a senior member of the executive team overseeing the company's financial and human resources operations, and providing legal counsel to the board of directors and senior management on a wide variety of strategic issues. Prior to joining Challenge Games, Mr. Coppersmith served as general counsel to Toppan Photomasks, Inc. (formerly DuPont Photomasks, Inc.), a globally-operating supplier of semiconductor materials. Prior to his promotion to general counsel at Toppan, Mr. Coppersmith had served as deputy general counsel, plant production manager and customer service manager. Mr. Coppersmith's expertise includes corporate and technology transactions, intellectual property, corporate finance, strategic alliances and licensing. Mr. Coppersmith has also served in a variety of roles with the US Air Force, including tours as counsel to NATO and regional counsel to the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence. Mr. Coppersmith is the incoming president for the Austin Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel for 2010. Mr. Coppersmith earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Citadel in Charleston, SC and a law degree from Samford University in Birmingham, AL. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with majors in Finance and Operations Management. Mr. Coppersmith first began playing video games on an Atari 2600 and has an original white box edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Mr. Coppersmith plays Planetstorm as Microchip. Jeff Petry Jeff Petry is the Vice-President of Sports & Licensed Properties at Challenge Games. Jeff brings 18 years of experience to the company. Jeff's career includes leadership roles in marketing and product development in consumer products, manufacturing, consulting, retail and technology. Most recently, Jeff was a key member of the executive team at Powered, a social marketing and media company. There he advised and developed online strategies and technologies for brands such as HP, Sony and iVillage. During his tenure, Powered grew its top line by nearly 650%. Jeff previously had marketing roles with Question Technologies (acquired by Motive), Emerson (NYSE: EMR) and Spectrum Brands (NYSE: SPC), where he developed marketing programs and a product line that won Home Depot�s Vendor of the Year award. He has also held leadership positions with Ernst & Young Management Consulting and LA Darling Company, a supplier of merchandising systems to Wal-Mart Stores. Jeff is a lifelong baseball fan and card collector, and has played nearly every baseball simulation on the market since the mid '90s. Christian Primozich Christian Primozich leads software development for Challenge Games and also collaborates closely with Andrew on game design and product planning. Chris developed his first game for the TRS-80 back when a lot more time was spent in basements and bookstores playing Dungeons & Dragons than logged into MMORPG's. He slaved away in the mines of the gaming world during a two and a half year stay at Origin Systems but managed to escape with a rich set of tools and a great deal of knowledge gleaned from the pioneers of the industry, Richard Garriott and Chris Roberts. From Origin, Chris entered the start-up world where he worked for Andrew's first company, ichat. Over the last eleven years, they've worked together on several endeavors and their shared passion for games made for a natural partnership when Andrew started Challenge Games. Chris is a graduate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. In Duels, Chris is known as Blerg. Matt Deegler Matt is the Game Development Director for Challenge Games. Matt leads a team of kick ass ninja programmers, amazing artists, and incredible designers that are responsible for producing the upcoming game titles here at Challenge. While being an avid gamer all his life, Matt has only recently made the transition into professional game development. Before Challenge Games, Matt worked in software development for 13 years developing software for companies such as FedEx, IBM, Tradescape (now a part of eTrade), and more recently CollabNet where he was a lead engineer on the SourceForge Enterprise Edition Software Product. Since joining Challenge Games, Matt has produced both Warstorm and Planetstorm and has 2 other top secret titles in the works! You can find Matt playing Warstorm. Janus Anderson Janus Anderson is the Chief Creative Officer for Challenge Games. Janus Anderson is responsible for developing new concepts and designing game systems for a variety of titles at Challenge Games. Janus has accumulated more than 15 years of experience working as a designer and programmer in the games industry. His career has been focused exclusively on massively multiplayer games, beginning with the first generation graphical MMOG The Realm, published by Sierra On-Line in 1997. Since then, Janus has been involved in the development of a wide variety of MMOG titles, including Earth & Beyond, Puzzle Pirates, Shadowbane, and Dungeon Runners. Category:Community